


Of Falling And Rising

by janey_p



Category: No Fandom, Original Work
Genre: Challenge Response, Depression, Dreams, Fantasy, Gen, Interspecies Friendship, Parallel Universes, parallel story-telling
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-29
Updated: 2014-03-23
Packaged: 2018-01-10 11:56:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1159463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/janey_p/pseuds/janey_p
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Take one depressed human and give him dreams about a strange bird-like guy. Will that make his situation better or worse?<br/>If you asked his peers, they’d probably tell you he’s far beyond help already...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Here

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for [LuxKen27](http://archiveofourown.org/users/LuxKen27)’s [Summer Mini Challenge 2012](http://luxken27.livejournal.com/243702.html). The first 11 parts have already been posted to my lj account [here](http://janey-p.livejournal.com/tag/of%20falling%20and%20rising).  
> I’m starting to post the story here in hopes of finally finishing it. Haven’t worked on it for far too long, even though all chapters have been outlined for over a year... XD  
> The chapters posted here will be revised and as such, they’ll be slightly different from their lj version and probably longer, too.
> 
> Each chapter is based on one of the 25 prompts from that challenge, so there’ll be 25 chapters, once the story is finished. Though the final word count won’t be all that high, since the already written chapters are fairly short.  
> The recurring chapter titles “Here” and “There” will indicate which world is the focus in the respective chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> table #1, prompt #1: berry pink

Nathan sat on the floor of the only abandoned room of the house, unmoving and mind blank for the past ten minutes, or so. Threadbare as the carpet was, it was not the most comfortable place to sit on for long, but he didn’t want to move yet.

It was his second visit this month already. That might have frustrated him if it wasn’t for one simple fact: Sometimes it helped to surround himself with things he hated. It kept his emotions at boiling point, which was exactly what he wanted at this moment. Anything was better than the apathy that had been drowning him for a while now. It tended to develop pressure on his chest, to put weights on his shoulders, and he just got so tired that all he wanted to do was sleep.

Nobody understood his dark moods – hell, _he_ didn’t even understand them. He thought back to brighter days, not so far in the past, and wished he could feel as great again as he had then.

So here he was, in his sister’s old bedroom, which was still decorated in those horrid shades of pink she had favored when she was a kid. He had long since stopped wondering why his parents had never redecorated the room, even though she had moved out years ago. Not that he was about to complain, when he was using it as a “therapy room” every once in a while.

On that thought, he caught sight of Corso, the Bear. Ratty with age and its color faded, there was still no doubt at all that it had been just as pink as anything else in this room, once upon a time. He couldn’t suppress a wince in sympathy for the poor thing, while wondering for the umpteenth time how his sister hadn’t gone blind in her youth – or insane. Then again, he didn’t have solid proof that she wasn’t insane. It would explain so much...

He surprised himself by smiling about that. _That’s a first... for pink to inspire anything more positive than disgust in me._ But he’d take it as a sign. Maybe there was a way out of his mood hole.

Shooting the room one last fondly exasperated look, he closed the door and left.


	2. There

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> table #1, prompt #2: boardwalk

Ári crouched on the battlements of the castle’s highest tower, looking westwards. The sun was just rising, bathing the landscape beneath him in warm colors. He loved these few minutes of the morning, when night and day met, and the last stars were chased towards the horizon by the approaching light.

The lake in the distance started to glitter like fairy dust – just his luck that he would turn around at the exact moment the first rays of the sun hit the water, brightly enough that he had to look away to avoid it hurting his eyes. So he focused on the boardwalk surrounding the castle, instead, watching out for the guards. They didn’t know he’d spent the night in the tower again, and he’d like them to remain ignorant of that fact. They’d only report him to their Lord, who would do his best to make him stay. He really, _really_ didn’t want to stay. The plains were calling for him, after all.

He was getting restless now. Soon, the wind would pick up to tug at his body in that familiar way that would tell him it was time. He sometimes entertained the idea that he’d be able to fly after that last star and catch it before it vanished – if the wind would just reach him sooner.

 _Of course_ , he thought, _that’s nothing but a silly fantasy. No one can catch the stars. No matter how strong the winds are that carry you._

Just then he felt the first rustles catching in his hair and ruffling it. They flowed over his shoulders in a gentle caress and then gained force. It would take a little longer until the wind became strong enough to carry more than dead leaves – long enough that it would be hard to contain his rising anticipation.

A few minutes later, he saw an eagle launch into the air, followed closely by a second one.

 _Yes!_ Excitement flooded him as he tensed his grip on the parapet. _Time to fly!_


	3. Here

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> table #1, prompt #3: laugh

He dreamt of feathers that night, caught flashes of golden brown and glimmering black. There was a sense of freedom and wildness that didn’t stay with him for long after he woke. He was vaguely sad about it, but even that sadness was only temporary as the memory of the dream faded.

He did feel like something was missing, though, and he supposed that this could be a step closer to identifying the reason for his depression. Maybe the dream had triggered that, but he couldn’t be sure, now that he was fully awake. He’d have to revisit that idea later.

–––

The day passed slowly: He sat at work, feeling a little more off-kilter than usual and hardly getting anything done. This might turn out to be one of his worse days, and he just wanted it to be over. But the time crawled painfully slowly, and it didn’t help that he often stared at the sheets of paper without reading anything. It wasn’t like he was doing it on purpose, but his concentration was thoroughly shot.

A few colleagues kept shooting him worried glances. The rest of them had long since stopped bothering. It suited him just fine, since he wouldn’t know how to answer their questions anyway. They’d probably deem him even weirder than they already did if he tried to come up with explanations they could understand. He’d have to find any to understand for himself first.

When it was finally time to go home, he almost didn’t have enough energy left to get up and leave. Yes, it definitely was one of his worse days. If only he knew _why_ …

–––

This time, he heard laughter in his dream, completely carefree and full of joy. And again, there were feathers. He could almost imagine they were his. _But no, that couldn’t be right, could it?_

The feathers managed to distract him only briefly, because the laughter continued. It felt closer now – was it coming from him? He listened to it, concentrated on how it resonated in him and wondered if he’d ever be able to feel that way outside of his dreams.


	4. There

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> table #1, prompt #4: smooth

The Mirror Room still awed him, even though he had learned to conceal his reaction to it years ago. The only thing he allowed himself whenever he came here was a small pause to let the power currents play around him.

In his opinion, the room was misnamed, however. There were no mirrors in it, at least not in the strict sense. The Uninitiated would only see smoothly polished stone plates, set into the walls in irregular patterns. And what could be seen in them by Trained Ones like him was rarely ever a reflection. Some showed distance, both in space and time. Some showed ambitions, dreams or what-ifs. Only one had ever shown him his own face when he stood in front of it. He always made sure to look into it for at least a few moments each time he visited, to remind himself of what was real. It wouldn’t do to lose himself in a world not his own.

This time, though, the stone did something unexpected: At first there was his own reflection, just like always, but then it slowly got superimposed by something more... human. He frowned. The stone had never shown anything but reality to him, so why was it deviating now?

While he was still wondering about the anomaly, he felt a pull to his right, urging him to look at a specific plate. He recognized it as one that granted glimpses into a different realm, one that had lost its magic long ago and left most of its inhabitants out of touch with their inherent strengths. He didn’t like that place very much, because it was decaying, and the people there seemed to think of that as a good thing.

So, while he usually only spared a glance at that world, he looked more closely now. He was surprised when he spotted the same human there that he’d seen in the “truth stone”. There were other people around him, but as the crowd moved, the focus always stayed with that man.

Compared to the others, there was nothing remarkable about him. He was of average height, a little thin maybe, had sandy, windswept hair and wore clothes with muted colors – an easily forgettable person. And yet, there had to be something special about him, or the stone wouldn’t bother following him.

As Ári watched, the human started to scan the crowd, as if he was searching for something. The change in the man was subtle, but he seemed more alert, held himself straighter, stopped hunching his shoulders. It piqued Ári’s interest. What had drawn the human’s attention? The other humans kept moving around him, clearly oblivious to his vigilance. So it had to be something that was significant only to _him_.

The human continued to observe his surroundings, but it didn’t seem like he was able to find what he was looking for. The more time passed, the less he apparently cared for staying inconspicuous. He was openly staring at everyone passing him, frustration clearly visible in his stance. And then, the human abruptly turned and seemingly locked eyes with him. The connection snapped into place instantly and almost knocked him off his feet. _How...?_

Communication between two different worlds shouldn’t work – at least not in the Mirror Room. That wasn’t the room’s purpose. Here, the Trained Ones merely watched. Contact was only possible between Ambassadors. Ári had never shown a talent for it before, and he didn’t think the human had it, either. If there were any Ambassadors in that world at all, it would have come up at some point, but it never had.

So, why him? Why that particular human? Why now?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Editing this chapter took longer than I thought... Now it’s about twice as long as its first version (which is a good thing, because it was lacking information) and I actually gave this world’s main character a name. Choosing that name took about as long as the whole rewriting process - that’s what I get for needing my names mean something... XD
> 
> And in case you’re curious: Ári means “eagle” in Old Norse.


End file.
